El Paso businessman Adrian Peña pleads guilty to fraud charges

Adrian Pena walked toward the federal courthouse along with his attorney in March 2013 for a hearing where he asked that the records pertaining to the government's recusal of the U.S. Attorney's Office be unsealed. ( Times file photo)

Adrian Peña, the local businessman who pleaded guilty to public corruption charges in 2011 but later successfully fought to withdraw those pleas, again admitted his guilt in court on Tuesday.

Peña, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and the deprivation of honest services and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent claims to the federal government. According to his plea agreement, which was read aloud in court, Peña is expected to be sentenced in October to time served, seven months of home confinement and three years of supervised release.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone allowed Peña to remain free on bond. Peña is not expected to be fined, but may pay restitution in an amount to be determined by Cardone later.

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Adriana M. Chávez

In late 2010, Peña pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo to six years and four months in prison. Montalvo had also ordered Peña to pay a $250,000 fine.

Last year, a federal appeals court allowed Peña to withdraw his pleas and ruled Montalvo inappropriately interfered in the plea negotiations by stating he would not accept the guilty pleas unless Peña resolved a civil case involving Peña and SDVO, a construction company owned by Peña's father-in-law.

Peña, who was one of 28 people indicted in an ongoing public corruption investigation by the FBI, was taken into custody in 2011 and began serving his prison term. He was released from federal prison on bond after winning his appeal last year. His case was then transferred to Cardone.

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According to a factual basis read aloud in court by federal prosecutors, in 2004 Peña agreed to remodel a bathroom in the home of then-El Paso County Commissioner Elizabeth "Betti" Flores in return for the commissioner's vote to award a contract to Peña's employer.

Instead of remodeling the bathroom, Peña paid Flores $1,000 in August 2004 and another $9,000 in September 2004 after county commissioners voted to pay a $382,158 invoice submitted by Pena's employer.

Pena worked for C.F. Jordan at the time of the incident, court records show.

In the second case, between May 2002 and July 2007 Peña, co-defendant Jose Alfredo Gallegos and others planned to bribe then-El Paso Independent School District trustee Sal Mena Jr. with $13,000 in exchange for his help in securing contracts of subcontractors on EPISD construction projects, specifically the construction of Hut Brown Middle School in West El Paso, according to the factual basis.

Gallegos pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to two years in prison.

In the third and most recent case, Peña admitted to making a fraudulent claim in 2009 for payment totaling about $547,071 from the federal government for the construction of a federal facility in Arizona.

Peña and his wife, Melissa Peña, were indicted last year in the most recent case. Melissa Peña is scheduled to go to trial later this year.

Prosecutors are also asking that the Peñas forfeit $1,033,550.55, the total amount they allegedly received from the scheme. Cardone said Tuesday that the forfeiture amount will also be determined later.

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